The Red Tincture
by Ashari
Summary: Edward Elric arrives on the other side of the Gate, only to find that it isn't the world he thought it would be...and that old enemies lurk in the shadows, renewing the hunt for the cursed Philosopher's Stone. Chapter 1: A rude welcome.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer:** This crossover fiction is for entertainment purposes only. The purveyor of this madness is in no way associated with the creative minds behind the original two animated series serving as the inspiration for the following text. Lawyers are bad. Fanfiction is good. Read for fun.

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"And this is my son, Mordrid."

A boy with perfectly cropped blond hair and devious, perceptive blue eyes stepped out of the shadows and moved to stand beside his mother. He was indeed dressed the part of a medieval prince, in a tunic, pumpkin hose, and cape, all of a rich purple fabric accented with gold.

Dante's cool, studying smile grew just a hair. So _this _was Morgan le Fay's little treasure. It was his impudent little face that made Dante's smile grow. Like all immortal children, he would be trouble, but Dante had been reading people for enough centuries to know that this little imp might be more trouble than he was worth.

"Hello," came the child's voice, cool as his piercing blue eyes. "You must be Dante. Mother's told me much about you."

"I'm sure she has, Monsieur Le Fay." The warmth of her smile failed to reach her stolen violet eyes.

"I believe you mentioned a proposition of mutual gain?" Le Fay's voice, calculating, chilling, and ominous enough to raise hairs on a normal person, only worked to make Dante's empty smile grow even further.

"Indeed I did." The alchemist's tone bordered on drawling; she was taking her time, as if she wasn't aware of the slight growl of impatience in Morgan's tone.

"Wrath," Dante called towards the door to her left. "Come here, please."

The soft _pat-pat_ of bare footsteps on cold hardwood announced the arrival of the inadequately-clad, shaggy-haired child. The mismatched color of his skin—flush, peachy flesh on his right arm and left leg contrasting sharply with the corpse-grey of the rest of him—immediately marked the boy as unnatural and inhuman, even before le Fay and her son could get a good look at his eyes: large, amethyst, and chillingly serpentine.

Those eyes trawled up and down Mordrid as the black-haired boy regarded the other boy with an air of unimpressed impatience.

Mordrid, on the other hand, regarded Wrath's ghoulish visage with undisguised disgust.

"Wrath, please show Mordrid the way to the library," Dante instructed coolly, never taking her analyzing eyes or smile off of Morgan le Fay. "I need to have a word with Madame le Fay in private."

Wrath and Mordrid each looked up at their respective guardians with identical looks of incredulity and disgust.

"Mordrid, why don't you ask Wrath to show you some alchemy?" le Fay told her son, nudging him towards the undead child in a clear, dismissive tone of, 'go and play while the adults talk.'

The blond boy's interest instantly piqued. He moved to join the reanimated child. "You can do alchemy?"

Wrath's disdainful look morphed into a proud, devious grin. "I'm the only Homunculus who can."

The two boys crossed the entry hall together, moving towards the door Wrath had come out of. "I didn't know golems could do magic." Mordrid's look was clearly impressed, though he managed to pull off a condescending grin at the same time.

Wrath instantly scowled. "I'm a Homunculus, not a golem," he shot back, his tone adding, 'Stupid.' "And alchemy isn't magic, it's science." He closed the door behind the two of them, leaving Dante and Morgan le Fay alone in the hall.

"Now, your 'proposition,' Dante." Morgan le Fay crossed her arms, as if her tone didn't already convey copious amounts of impatience. "I've come to understand that you're searching for the—"

"Philosopher's Stone. Yes." Dante interrupted the witch smoothly and without even the courtesy of meeting her gaze. She had already crossed the hall into the front sitting room, and only looked up at le Fay again once she was comfortably seated in one of the large, plush lazy-chairs.

It was difficult to tell with the mask completely obscuring her face whether or not Dante's dismissive demeanor and cool, impudent smile managed to irritate Morgan, but while the mage moved into the sitting room to join the alchemist, she remained standing. Dante's smile curled a little farther up her face to see the powerful sorceress so ill at ease.

"So. What do you know of it?" Le Fay's tone strained not to growl with impatience and irritation at Dante's impudence.

"I have held its completed form in my hands," Dante answered smoothly.

"As have I," le Fay countered, unimpressed.

"Doubtful," the alchemist returned. She propped an elbow on the arm of her chair and casually supported her cheek with the back of her wrist.

"I beg your pardon?" Morgan's tone froze the air of the room, though Dante seemed impervious to the chill.

"I've done a bit of research on your so-called Stone." The alchemist did not bother to hold back the undertone of disdain in her voice. "It was nothing more than a lifeless piece of rock compared to the true Stone. A complete Philosopher's Stone cannot simply be _shattered_, Morgan le Fay. It cannot be destroyed by normal means."

The witch fell silent. Her gaze weighed heavily on the alchemist, even from under the golden mask.

"Tell me more about this stone of yours."

Dante's cool smirk blossomed into a smile, a grin almost too wide for a human face. Her lavender eyes grew hungry, predatory.

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**  
Author's Notes:** Crossover of the Fullmetal Alchemist anime (first series) and Justice League Unlimited. The JLU aspect is canon only to the animated series universe, not necessarily the comics; I don't know nearly enough about all the various comic plotlines to write in those contexts.

YAY the Prologue! XD This prologue, along with the upcoming Chapter 1, are quite the oddities among my writings. Number One, both of them are transcribed in full from HANDWRITTEN HARD COPIES, something I almost never do. Number Two, both parts were written ENTIRELY during lectures at varying points in my college career. XD!

This prologue was written completely piecemeal. I started it in Lit class in 2006 and finished it in Econ class in 2008. The papers stayed in my folder for that long and made reappearances every so often. XD; Hence, I'm sorry if the writing style is a little...funky...XD;;;

So yeah. Prologue. Stuff is hinted at. Trouble brews. Bwa hahaha. XD

Also, this has got to be the first time I've ever written a crossover that didn't include an OC. Heh. XD;


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimers: **Fullmetal Alchemist and all characters therein belong to Arakawa, BONES, Squenix, and Funimation. Justice League Unlimited and all characters therein belong to DC and whoever published the animated series, WB I think? lulz.

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Pain. Pain awoke him, reaching down through the blackness with clawed fingers and yanking him upward. He jolted awake and immediately gasped, the pain stealing the air from his lungs; his next reaction was to grimace, to bite down and push away the pain.

His lungs ached, his breathing rasping painfully in his chest, and it occurred to him that the warm fluid dribbling down his chin tasted like blood. His right shoulder and left thigh _burned,_ and a nauseating surge of grief and regret struck him with the thought that his arm and leg had been taken _again_, too soon after Al had fixed him so beautifully.

Al. Al.

Edward Elric opened his eyes to a skyline he did not know. Massive structures of glass and concrete towered around him on all sides. Smoke choked the air and dimmed the mid-afternoon sky.

He gagged on the smoke and the need to cry out at the pain eating away at him. Slowly, shakily, Ed raised his head, inspecting his own form.

Golden eyes bulged at what they saw.

He had his arm and leg again—his metal ones. The automail he had grown so accustomed to over his four-year journey was back in place. His body burned as if he had just undergone full automail surgery _again_, but this time with clumsier hands than the Rockbells'.

_The…the Gate took my arm and leg and gave me back my automail…?_ The thought was so incredulous that its significance was utterly lost to the thinker.

And Ed didn't have time to contemplate, either. An explosion went off to his right, shaking the concrete upon which the boy lay.

Edward heaved himself into a sitting position, grinding his teeth as he worked through the rawness of his freshly implanted automail joints. Golden eyes roved about, quickly taking in their surroundings—several fresh potholes in the black asphalt, an overturned car that had been belching smoke since before he awoke, and a settling cloud of dust and debris to his right.

The alchemist set his jaw and struggled to his feet. He bit down on a sharp cry as he put weight on the automail leg.

_It's a damn war zone. Have to move. Move, Edward Elric._

He hobbled three shaky steps before his balance gave and he went toppling over.

Ed pushed himself up with his good arm, his eyes squinted shut in pain—his left leg lay trapped beneath him. The alchemist let out a growl, shifting his weight in an attempt to free the leg. His frustrated struggle was interrupted as the ache in his lungs asserted itself; he fell to his side as a coughing fit seized him.

_Too much smoke…_

He could feel his consciousness trying to drift away with the smoke, could see his surroundings begin to blur.

_I'm gonna die if I don't get out of here._

Ed raised his good arm again to try to lift himself off the ground, but the dizziness grew too persistent. It was so much easier to just lie where he was, despite the rough asphalt grating the bare skin of his torso.

_Al…I'm alive, even after…I can't die now, not here…_

Something black and solid tumbled out of the grey-brown clouds of smoke and debris in front of Ed.

Edward blinked. The thing grunted as it hit the ground, but it looked too amorphous to be a person…

…until the thing stood up, revealing itself to be a tall man in a large black cape. The man's mouth was the only thing visible beneath his cowl and mask, and Ed watched him grimace at something Ed couldn't see, something hidden in the cloud of dust.

A hail of gunfire erupted out of the smoke. The black-caped man darted out of the way, disappearing behind an overturned car like a trailing shadow.

It suddenly occurred to Ed that he was physically incapable of getting out of the way.

"Shit!" The blond wrapped his head in his arms, trying to curl into the smallest ball possible so as to present less of a target. Lying on his side with his own leg still trapped under him, all he could really manage was protecting his head.

A sharp cry ripped from him as a bullet grazed his ribs.

"DAMNIT!"

Pain and adrenaline were good incentives to throw caution to the wind.

Grimacing with fury, Edward Elric unwrapped his arms and clapped them across his chest.

When he twisted to slam his palms to the ground, he was genuinely surprised to see the blue light crackling beneath his fingertips.

The air seared with transmutation light, and with a grinding and shifting of stone, a thick wall emerged out of the asphalt in front of the alchemist. A relieved breath escaped him now that bullets had ceased to whiz over his head.

Another coughing fit seized Edward's compact form. His arms pulled to his chest and he curled inward upon himself as his chest heaved again and again. When the convulsive coughing passed, he merely lay on his side, trying to focus on one thing: _breathe_.

His vision started to fade again. His sense of hearing rapidly deteriorated as blackness encroached upon him. Vaguely, Ed registered a warm wetness coating his side and idly wondered how much blood he'd lost.

A black shape moved at the periphery of Ed's sight. Something touched his neck, but he could no longer discern temperature or texture.

"Smoke inhalation," someone muttered, miles above him. Ed twitched; the voice was deep, too deep, like his father's…_stupid old man, picked a hell of a time to show, wanna punch your FACE—_

"Breathe, kid. Just breathe. Hang in there."

Ed's thoughts began to slip away from him, slithering down a black well towards oblivion. _Don't have to tell ME to breathe, genius…gonna…not gonna die yet…Al, where is…Al…_

The rest of Ed's mind toppled into the well and was enveloped by darkness.

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**  
Author's Notes:** Short chapters are short. Sorry about that, friends. These chapters were originally 1.) written on notebook paper and 2.) published on deviantART. Crossposting is for the win. :3

This one was written entirely in my Econ class last year. Good God that class was boring. T_T

I was going to do Batman's POV next, which was why I froze up after writing this chapter, but serious rethinking has made me decide to stick to Edward's POV until further notice. Sorry JLU fans, but my Journalism teacher told me to write what I know, and what I know best is the inside of Edward Elric's head. (For now.)

Also, despite this series being TOTALLY not finished, it inspired an already-almost-complete series that was a collab betwixt myself and another fanfiction authoress. (The title is "Path of Ouroborus.") We essentially crossed over our crossovers—we're talkin' Fullmetal Alchemist/Justice League Unlimited x Resident Evil/Starcraft/Homeworld. Talk about your multi-canon madness. XD; If any readers of this fic are at all interested in seeing that one, please give a holler. It's not too far away from posting quality; we just need to sit down and edit it.


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